


Dessert To Go

by LBLBLB



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 05:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/858208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LBLBLB/pseuds/LBLBLB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thank you to hplssrmntc8688 on LJ for the beta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dessert To Go

“What, um, did you…so you, I mean...do you have an idea of when you want to get married? Or what the wedding will be like?”

“May 18th, 2013.” She blushes because the answer came very quickly. “Because that is the three year anniversary of when we met. But other than that, I don’t know. I never spent a lot of time thinking about my wedding day.”

“There are no color-coded binders on the subject?” He teases.

“No.” She clears her throat and tries not to be embarrassed. But she isn’t sure she should be embarrassed. “It was never a priority. Not that I didn’t think that I might, that we might, you know... eventually.”

She isn’t looking at him. And Ben does not like it. He’s spent six months not being able to look her in the eye without the filter of a phone or computer screen. It hurts to not look at her. He seems to have struck a nerve when that was not at all his intention. Why would she be upset by this?

They are sitting in the nicest restaurant in Pawnee. It’s late, and a weeknight, so there are only a few other diners there. It almost feels like Ben rented the entire place so they could have a private romantic evening. 

“I mean, maybe after Florida.” She hardly says it. And he can see that it took a lot for her to force the words out. It stings a little. But he understands. He knows what to say.

“Leslie, did you think I didn’t want to come back to Pawnee? Or that I wasn’t coming back?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know. Are you sure you want to give up your career? There is a gubernatorial race in a major state, and someone wants you to run it. You would leave that to marry me and live in Pawnee?” Her words are painful to his ears. And he knows that it is entirely his fault that she is saying this. 

“I am not giving anything up, Leslie.”

“But you did so well in DC. And everyone loved you. And they should love you. You’re amazing and talented and what is there in Pawnee that can live up to that? Will I be enough? I don’t know if I can compete with the excitement of the big city and the big job and the big events with the big political celebrities.”

“Hey. Hey hey hey. I have never been more excited to come home to you. Nothing in DC or Florida or Neptune for that matter could come close to how I feel about you and starting our life together right here. And I didn’t move to DC to get away from you or from Pawnee. I did it for you. And for Pawnee.”

“What? How do you mean?”

“I took the job to learn how to run a major campaign. Not that our campaign wasn’t major. It was. It was an incredible experience. But it was still for a small office. And before you start yelling because I said that, please let me finish. It was a small race. In a small town. And you are not small Leslie. You can go as far as you want. Statehouse, Governor’s mansion, House, Senate, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; you can do it. You should do it. I believe in you, and I want to take you wherever you want to go. So when you are ready to run for a larger office, I will be able to do that for you. Because I went to DC and took that job I know how. Even though it was pretty terrible being away from you for all those months, I never for a moment forgot that I was doing it for you. For the dynamic duo, the dream team. For my future wife.” 

She has not moved for a while. He feels bad that she didn’t already know his intentions for the DC job. It seems that he should have definitely made that clear a long time ago. He hates to admit that he likes the way she is taking the information in, like she is digesting it. But she really should have said something by now.

“Leslie?”

 

It’s like she sees words and letters swimming in her brain but she can’t make them come together well enough to speak. She is staring at the little candle on their table. The tiny flame was flickering back and forth. She is captivated by the blue part under yellow flame, holding it upright, giving it all of the glory. 

She can barely breathe. And silly, adorable Ben is back to eating his dinner.

“You? You think I am capable of holding federal office?”

“Yes.” He is chewing his food and smiling and he looks like a little lithe and sexy chipmunk. Then tilts his head and says, “I thought you wanted to run for congress one day, on the road to the White House.”

She tucks her chin and lifts her eyebrows to him. She never thought anyone took her seriously when she said she wanted to be the President of the United States. She thought that maybe Ben was teasing her right now. But when her eyes met his she saw his unbridled confidence in her. He was so earnest, and sincere, and oh so very Ben.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You already said that you would marry me today. There isn’t anything else I want you to say.”

“You said some pretty amazing stuff today too, you know. I don’t know how I ever got so lucky to have you.”

“I feel the same way.” 

He reaches over the table and takes her hand. Just being able to touch him feels incredible, after such an arduous separation. But to be with him, in the flesh, for the first time in weeks and to be his fiancé? It is really hard to not get emotional.

“Okay.” She takes a breath, a deep one, in order to hold her happy tears inside. She is so in love with him. “I might – I’m going to need a minute to just…”

Oh boy, she can’t help it. Here come the tears. She knows that he does not like to be around people who are crying. He told her so once after they watched a particularly moving Senate floor speech about Coast Guard Authorization Funding on C-Span. But as she tried to apologize for her tears that day he told her how beautiful she looked when she cried. 

So tonight she lets her fat tears fall into her uneaten salad and tells him, “I love you, so much Ben. Not because you said those things. I just …”

“Don’t cry Leslie-min. Please. I... I thought you already knew.”

“I didn’t. Ben, I really want to do stuff to you right now.”

“And I really want you to be able to do all of the stuff you want to do to me.” She starts to get out of her seat and she hears him call across the room to the waiter. He asks for their check and one of every dessert they have to go.

She really has found the perfect human man.


End file.
